The 49-year-old veteran broadcaster last month signed a new two-year deal with PBS for his
self-titled late-night talk show, on which VIPs — from general-turned-statesman Colin Powell to
dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and author Amy Tan — have turned up for in-depth discussions. (He also
co-hosts — with scholar Cornel West — the public radio show
Smiley & West.)

But, as Smiley recounted from his south Los Angeles offices one recent morning, the PBS deal was
hardly a foregone conclusion, given some of the hurdles he has faced in his 10th year on the
network.

“This year was supposed to be a celebration of all the stuff we had done together,” he said, his
briefcase crammed with dog-eared folders containing documents related to his various projects.

“It’s getting harder and harder to make this stuff work,” he said. “Every week, I’m beating my
head against a wall, trying to raise money.”

Such is the life of a public-TV personality. Unlike most other TV hosts, who simply do their
jobs and collect a paycheck from a network, Smiley has to raise most of the money for his program,
which costs $7 million to $8 million a year to produce.

PBS generally contributes about $1 million of that sum. The rest comes from corporate sponsors,
which Smiley has to round up himself.

Wal-Mart, a longtime sponsor, has stepped up again.

“What you’re hearing from him is someone who’s tired of being out looking for money all the
time,” said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS — who added that the network renewed
Tavis Smiley because it values the host’s views.

“He adds another perspective.”

But penny-pinching companies aren’t his only worry. The world is changing in ways that don’t
favor the reflective, tweedy atmosphere of public television.

“As the handlers get younger and younger, and as the artists crave more and more to be in the
social-media zeitgeist, it becomes harder and harder for my producers to get through to clients the
value of being on PBS,” he said. “It’s not an easy sell.”

While still in college, Smiley worked as an aide to then-Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. After an
unsuccessful bid for the Los Angeles City Council, he began filing commentaries for radio stations
in the early 1990s. His career as a media personality was born.

The ride has been bumpy.

Smiley hosted
BET Tonight. But he and the network parted ways in 2001 after he scored an interview with
terrorist-turned-homemaker Sara Jane Olson. He sold that interview to ABC News, which BET saw as a
competitor.